Woke up this morning with a chromatic aberration above my eye, which, for some reason last night, I chose to test the structural integrity of the kitchen door frame, whilst wending my way to bed under IFR. While it is a salient point that we’d moved the remote phone, so its LED now glows from the table in one room rather than the desk in the other, it was definitely pilot error, which resulted in a gloriously hollow, teeth-clacking moment. So, I fell asleep last night with an icepack held to my face, which seems to have mitigated the effects a bit. Maybe I need a blog entry tag for “Great Moments in Cleverness”…

Whether the blow to the head or some other feeling of sloth overcoming momentum, I’m going to catch up a bit here. The last mileage entry was June, which isn’t precisely up-to-date. (Now, I did make a July entry, but managed to not be saving and nicked the wrong button near the end, obliterating the text. As I’ve been in dang-izzit-that-late-already? mode for the last few months, it didn’t get restated and this writing venue subsequently languished.) I’ve already mumbled and shuffled my way through a bit of an explanation here, so if such things are important or of interest, I’ll wait while you pop over there (and hopefully back.)

Rather than try to recreate the missing entries, with appropriate insights and observations, here are the numbers:

July - 15 Riding Days - 307 miles - YTD mileage: 2598

August - 17 Riding Days - 376 miles - YTD mileage: 2974

September - 13 Riding Days - 223 miles - YTD mileage: 3197

Yoga sessions have been pretty consistent throughout - twice a week with a great teacher, and I’m finding that the odd shoulder soreness has lessened steadily.

It’s been a bit frustrating as mileage has been pretty hard to come by for the past few months - a number of weekend VO workshops chipped into longer rides in good weather, and invocation of the Costanza Rule had me resting when I felt iffy and overstressed. And, though I hate to admit it, that’s worked. The other thing is that I’ve been trying to consciously ride harder now and again. Ok…it’s actually been more like - “Oh crap! I’m still at work and supposed to be home now….” induced speed work. I also have been doing a bit more hiking again, which has been pretty cool.

One frustration is that I don’t think I’ll manage a cross campaign this fall - some light trotting but nothing at race pace and I haven’t even pulled the fenders off the Quickbeam (though I have been skimming some trails in fixed gear mode.) Still, there is a lightly used set of CX tires on the pile in the garage, so you never know….

On the other hand, I did get to engage in the silly-fun practice of indoor sky-diving…